My Wife Got Me an iPad!

One thing I have not mentioned here is that my lovely wife got me an iPad 2 as a wedding gift (32Gb, wi-fi). She then told me she got it without 3G so "we can enjoy the honeymoon".

I've loved reading on it. We have done our devotions on it and I have been reading classic books on it.

The Pulse App makes the iPad worth it by itself though.

 

Flipboard is another great app if you subscribe to RSS feeds for your news.

 

How is it better than pulse?

 

Well, Pulse's layout appears to be similar, but just from seeing screenshots, I'd say that Flipboard's is a little more intuitive for those who grew up with hardcopy periodicals. In any case, with Flipboard being free as well, you can't lose anything by giving it a try.

 

Serious question, what does the iPad offer for you that a combination of laptop and iphone does not?
I have considered getting one, but I fear that I would only be doing so out of vanity and to have desire to have the "latest gadget".

 

http://www.apple.com/ipad

Watch the videos of the thing being used. Or if you prefer, I could actually go ahead and fill 3 whole posts with a list.

 

^ I've see the videos. So inform me.

 

Starting with the obvious, then. A laptop minus the obstruction of an attached keyboard, minus the resource-sucking bloatware, plus multitouch display. Or, from another angle, imagine something the size and weight of an Amazon Kindle DX that does full motion video (including videoconferencing), gaming and (very nearly)* full-compliance web surfing, email, Skype/other VoIP services.

Out of the box, it's the premier media consumption device right now. Add a Bluetooth keyboard like the one from Apple itself or from ZaggMate (the two best, IMO) and any of two dozen apps, and it's equally adept as a content production device, as well. Add that Bluetooth keyboard and an app like LogMeIn Ignition, and it basically is a laptop, although the out-of-the-box usage scenario is the one it's more focused for.






*excluding Flash, which, unsurprisingly, is being more strongly contested by HTML5 with each passing day and which even competitors like the Motorola Xoom don't support out of the box, either.

 

Som you're saying that the added value is that it doesn't have a keyboard.....but I should add a bluetooth keyboard?

All the rest that you list my laptop does, and then it has HD capability on top.

So what am I paying £600 for?

 

The smug...damn. Techforge.

 

I'm saying what I said, which is right up there and which doesn't include the implication you're making.

All the rest that you list my laptop does, and then it has HD capability on top.[/quote]

Your laptop has a multitouch display? That's kind of amazing. First laptop I've heard of that has that.

I don't know, what are you paying £600 for? You do that often, pay that kind of money for something you personally don't understand the value of? Or are you just trolling?

 

A laptop will play Flash.

 

Yes, it will.

 

$600 for multitouch display is stupid.
I ran into only a couple sites that I couldn't load completely because of flash. A lot of aps aren't made for the ipad, so they just stretch and pixelate stupidly when you install them.
So far the ONLY reasons to get it are: the nationwide internet service, and the incredible portability w/ nice screen size. THAT is worth $600, IMO, because it's MUCH easier to surf the web on a screen that size, anywhere, anytime, than it is on an iphone. The iPad is so thin it fits in my purse, and it weighs little enough that I could take it anywhere. Unfortunately, it's my mom's.

I loved having an ipad with me on my trip to birmingham this last weekend. I did shopping for father's day, I posted on facebook (which did stretch and pixelate, stupidly enough), and looked at wordforge. There was good internet on about 90% of the trip, and we drove through a bit of bumfuck Alabama!

 

There you go, Apostle: It will fit nicely in your purse.

 

My laptop doesn't, but my iPhone does, So, again, what is the iPad adding to that?

Well, I haven't paid it yet, which is why I am asking you to explain it to me. Is that complicated?

 

It's not complicated. It's also not hard to figure out that you're just trolling.

 

My oldest cousin had an iPad, and returned it after a week. When I asked him why, the two biggest things he didn't like about it were:

1) No Flash support. I was a bit surprised by this, as he's a teacher. I'm a graphic designer and my clients sometimes want Flash. Why would a teacher need Flash?

2) No USB support. He couldn't just stick a USB key into the device to take out all his dirty pictures. This made transferring his files to his laptop, PS3, etc. a huge pain in the ass.

 

I'm not trolling at all. Simply because it's your speciality doesn't mean that everyone else is up to it all the time.

Quite simply, you have yet to tell me what it can do that my present tech can't.

Why is this so hard? Clearly you think it does add something, so what is it?

 

Let's be of chill in Techforge, please.

 

Assuming you actually have watched the videos I linked you to, you've been both shown and told. You're not unable to grasp it, and since the form factor of your laptop's preclusion of interacting with media and information in the same way is obvious to anyone but a complete moron -- which you clearly are not -- the only reasonable conclusion here is that you are indeed trolling.

 

The iPad is a wonderful tool for someone who travels often, but does not need intensive computational ability. It's size, portability and flexibility make it a wonderful device for that. If you are a well heeled customer of a longish commute on public trans you might enjoy it as well.

Unless you fit that bracket, I just don't see the use for it. I have an iPhone and MacBook and get by just fine. Of course, I don't travel a lot and don't use public transport.

For a couple of hundred more (than the top end iPad), a MacBook Air is a much better buy.

 

Hands on with he iPad 2 right now. Amazingly light and easy to handle for posting using your humbs.

 

Clearly, if you don't see the value in it, you aren't sophisticated enough to appreciate it.

It does everything your laptop will do only you don't have to lug along a keyboard and it has a touch screen. Of course if your laptop can run flash, has USB ports and a DVD drive, then it actually doesn't do everything your laptop will do.

Oh, and it isn't compatible with anything your PC has.

 

Interferes with hitchhiking though.

 

iPads are good for content consumption. It blows my mind that people are actually buying keyboard cases for them, if you get a high end ipad and a keyboard case you may as well have gotten a laptop.

I have an iPad that I got through my last job. I like it because it's light and thin and always connected to the internet no matter where I'm at. It's way nicer experience for web surfing on the go than an iPhone. Quite honestly it could be 3 inches smaller and do the job just fine though. It's a good sales tool, good for quick presentations, good for updating inventory spreadsheets on the go. The battery life is incredible. I have used it for over 10 hours straight while traveling to not only get around with the GPS but watch a few movies while I was on my flights. It was literally on and in use for almost the entire time period and there was still about 10% of the battery life left. When I'm using it throughout the week I typically charge it only on Sunday night and again on Friday (because after a week's use it has about 40% left and I tend to use it more frequently on the weekends).

It's a pretty good content consumption tool. I did not purchase it with my money but the version they bought me was the top of the line iPad 1 and it was 900 after tax.

If I was trying to decide on a top of the line iPad vs a high end netbook, despite how useful the ipad has been for me, I would probably go with the netbook.

$900 after tax for an iPad 2 or $1,080 after tax for the low end Macbook Air? Then you can get a USB 3G or 4G device that you pay the same $25 a month you're paying for the iPad's 3G service.

You're sacrificing touchscreen, ease of use in the inventory process(something which most of you would care nothing about anyway), and roughly 50% of the battery life and some of the games of course but I don't do much gaming. You gain a device of roughly the same dimensions that is more powerful and capable and is much better for content creation (keyboard, mouse). The style of content consumption changes from a more magazine like set of Apps to the full on internet. It's not as pretty but it's the real deal full on internet with flash (not that flash will matter in a year or 2, but then again neither will whatever device you buy).

The next generation of Macbook Air is rumored to have built in 3G or 4G capability, thunderbolt port, and coming out in August with the new OSX Lion. So if it were me, I would definitely wait on that.

There are also some other really nice netbook options from Sony and other PC makers but the battery life isn't good enough in most cases and if it is you tend to be paying Apple prices anyway. I prefer Apple's OS and quality so that's why I would go with the Air.

But since I have an iPad 1 that still does an outstanding job of mobile computing for me, I will opt to get nothing for at least another year or so.

 

It's quite a bit lighter than almost any laptop and is definitely smaller than every netbook currently available (not counting that really weird tiny sony vaio that seems to be underpowered and almost completely useless).

The battery will last at least twice as long as anything else out there. Fuck a DVD drive, I can't even remember the last time I put a CD/DVD in my laptop. You can add on a USB dongle if you really want one but those things will go the way of the Optical drive soon enough. The future of everything, laptops included is in wireless updates and data transfers. In fact USB the way you are referring to it (as in USB 2.0) is already dated as a port. The new USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt are what you would want now. Quite honestly I think the iPad would benefit from a built in SD or Micro SD card slot, USB is too thick. I could add it on with a dongle but I wouldn't use it enough to make it worth it. If I really want a file on the ipad most of the time I can just email it to myself. If I'm uploading new videos and music to it, like with the iPhone it's going to have to be plugged in for now. I'm sure over the air updates are on the way with IOS 5 but it's just not quite here yet.

Preemptive response: Yes I'm aware that some Android phones do over the air updates now but I'm perfectly happy waiting for Apple to bring it to their devices when it will actually work smoothly, unlike the Droids.

 

I'll have to remember that the next time I sync Evernote or send myself a Pages document for revision and rewrites in Word.

 

There are touch-screen laptops now without a traditional keyboard (the keyboard itself is a touch-screen as well -- handy if you need to switch between keyboard layouts on the fly).

While the iPad looks interesting and appealing, certainly was fun when I tried it out at the Verizon store, the lack of USB ports and optical drive make it a bit iffy. Granted, that would foul up the size, but how badly so? I like the concept of being able to take my DVDs and watch a movie on the go without lugging my full-on 17" laptop and quickly scan through files on my thumb drive (yes, I know iTunes is the sync app). Also, does the iPad offer stylus support? If not, that's a red flag for my own personal use. Say I get an iPad version of Sibelius (music notation software) -- using a stylus offers far more precision than my fingers would to enter the notes.

 

Not sure, honestly, why you'd want/need USB or optical on any tablet -- in any case, no tablet I know of offers an optical drive (Well, maybe the Modbook, but you're not getting that for $500) and I'd have to look, but I'll assume for the benefit of the doubt that there may be one or two that offer USB.

As for Sibelius -- I'd have to assume that, provided it exists at all for iOS, it's capable of extreme fingertip precision or is bundled with something that enables stylus input. Odds are that if one music professional (you) has doubts about using the app with only a fingertip, so would the music professionals who work to develop Sibelius, and would take steps to overcome whatever difficulties there would be in using it on the iPad.

EDIT: Yes, apparently there is an iOS version of Sibelius.

http://www.sibelius.com/products/avid_scorch/index.html